which every woman should wear, and of which modesty is the golden clasp that keeps it upon her, or the fringe that adorns it; and when the clasp is lost, the garment is likely to fall off; and when the fringe is torn away, or carelessly allowed to be trampled upon, the first dilapidation of the robe has commenced, till at length it is cast away as a disfigured garment, not worth being retained.

I do not wish you to mistake a silly and affected bashfulness for modesty. You live not among Asiatic ignorance, tyranny, sensuality, and female degradation, where woman is used mainly to pander to the appetite of her lord, and where by a cruel jealousy she is excluded from intercourse with all but her fellow-slaves and their common tyrant. You are the women of an enlightened age and country, where you are admitted on equal terms to all the enjoyments of social intercourse. Assert in this respect your rights; maintain your standing, and while you throw off all boldness, cast away with it all unworthy bashfulness. In one of our previous sermons we remarked that the over-prudish mind, which can never speak to one of the opposite sex but with a blush, is not always the purest one in reality.

There are, my young friends, one or two momentous lessons for you to learn from Rebekah's conduct in after-life-lessons which you must carry with you through all your future existence on earth. The first is general-a change of circumstances often

produces a considerable change of character and conduct. How unlike the maid of Nahor was the wife in Canaan! And is it an uncommon thing now, for a change far more extensive and more painful than this to be effected by the new condition into which marriage brings the female character? Learn also this special lesson-that we should never seek a good end by bad means; or in other words, never do evil that good may come. Abhor the great principle and favorite maxim of Jesuitism, that the end sanctifies the means; and especially in reference to religion, abhor the application and operation of this most detestable principle-a principle which is more or less interwoven with the whole history of Popery. What crimes have been perpetrated by the zealots of Rome in the abused name of religion, for the good of the church! The pages of history which record the progress of that dreadful apostacy are not only stained with blood, but steeped in it. And even by other professing Christians, holding a purer creed, and animated by a milder spirit, how much has been done, ostensibly for religion, but really for sectarianism, which is contrary to every principle of both the law of love to God, and love to our neighbor. Religion refuses to be served by any principles of action but its own, and disdains to accept whatever is offered it, that is contrary to truth, love, holiness, and honor. And as the stronger our zeal is for an object, the more we are in danger of resorting, in times of difficulty or in

prospect of defeat, to unworthy means; so the more fervent we are to promote any religious cause, the more watchful we should be against being seduced into the use of unholy means to obtain success. The wife of Isaac was right in her object, but wrong in her means to obtain the blessing for Jacob.

But we must take leave of Rebekah. It is somewhat remarkable that the sacred narrative takes no notice of her death. Is it that this act of her history has so disrobed her character of its pristine beauty, that a censure is pronounced upon her by this impressive silence? One might have hoped that she who came upon our notice at first like a bright and lovely vision, would have been seen to depart with as much gracefulness, simplicity, and beauty as she exhibited when we first saw her with such delighted attention. Is this the only instance of painful contrast between the maid and the matron-the only instance that has disappointed the hopes raised by youthful excellences-the only instance in which the full-blown flower has not answered to the bud? Happy would it have been for thousands if it had. Let it, then, be your first solicitude to exhibit in your early life and single state all those general and moral beauties which form the character of virgin excellence. Be holy, industrious, modest, benevolent, and useful; inspire hope in every beholder, and awaken expectation. But, then, be ever anxious, studious, and prayerful, that in the transition from the single to the wedded state; in the

development of the girl into the woman, all that was lovely, and artless, and simple in youthful charms, shall, with unbroken and unvarying consistency, ripen into all that is holy, and estimable, and venerable in the wife, the mother, and the matron.

The Ornaments of an Early Female Profession

of Religion.

"That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things."-TITUS ii. 10.

"

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price "-1 PETER iii. 3, 4.

THERE is in human nature an instinctive propensity to decoration. To whatever principle the taste may be traced up, whether to innate perception of the beautiful, or to a vain desire to excite admiration, the fact is indubitable. It is seen equally in savage and in civilized nations: and is manifested alike in attention both to their persons and their dwellings, and, indeed, to all their social customs and usages. The string of shells, of fishes' teeth, or bits of bone, round the neck of the Polynesian, and the blaze of diamonds, or of rubies, upon the brow or the breast of our British Queen, indicate the same instinctive propensity. This taste, however in many cases it may be altogether